To come up with a way to get St. Paul its money in the wake of a Coleman failure would certainly mesh nicely with the gubernatorial-campaign spiel the senator is already rehearsing. "I would never change parties or flip-flop on the issues, and I would have made sure this deal was a sure winner for the St. Paul taxpayers," says candidate Johnson. "The people of St. Paul deserve to have that."
Stick-Handling Ability: Ferocious forechecking and adept passes make him a proven asset on offense--big assist man. Nimble skater with good peripheral vision. But desire to be traded has resulted in questionable desire and motivation.
Daniel Corrigan
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The Penalty Box: Two minutes for interference, two minutes for cross-checking, and game misconduct for being the third man in a fight.
Power Play: Even strength, though he'd been playing shorthanded until very late in the game.
THE PEOPLE OF ST. PAUL
"Let me tell you something about the people of St. Paul," says former City Council President Dave Thune. "One morning last year I woke up and heard on the radio that we were making this big pitch for [then-Minneapolis-based] Lawson Software. I went over and talked to the city officials in Minneapolis and assured them they would have an opportunity to make their own offer to keep the company, that there wasn't any border war. When I got back over here, people were going, 'What are you doing? What are you talking to them for?' People here do have that pride about getting things, about building this place. I think Sandy discovered that when she was seen as being against hockey during the mayoral election."
Pappas agrees. "At the time we made the deal, I think people did get drawn up in the enthusiasm of hockey. It was, 'Why does Minneapolis get all the teams? Why don't we get a team?' The reality is that the hockey team could have gone to Target Center, but this is the fabric of St. Paul: We are a hockey town and we feel a little inferior compared to Minneapolis, and this deal feeds into that inferiority complex. One of my favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quotes is that it is easier to be enthusiastic than it is to be reasonable."
While the argument has always gone that what St. Paul lacks in clout it makes up for in character, the ever-popular George Latimer was most celebrated as mayor when he was building big downtown monuments such as Galtier Plaza--despite the fact that they were financial disasters. Devoted as he was to neighborhood development and conciliation with Minneapolis, Latimer's successor Jim Scheibel was a one-term mayor who was thought not to be up to the task.
Now the citizens of St. Paul have a leader who learned his history lesson well. Norm Coleman has talked and acted with a big-city panache from the get-go, luring Lawson across the river and bringing in an NHL team. Ostensibly the enthusiasm is over the economic revitalization of downtown, but with St. Paul pressing tight against its debt capacity and bond raters making nervous noises, that forecast is still somewhat cloudy. What is certain is that pride is again on the upswing among denizens of St. Paul, and with it the willingness to hope for a better future, regardless of the odds. As his easy re-election demonstrates, they credit Coleman for stoking it.
Put simply, St. Paul wants to be a player, and Norm Coleman has put them in the game. Whatever the Legislature decides, five weeks from now the Civic Center is coming down and in its place the RiverCentre will go up. The citizens of St. Paul have gone out and bought themselves a big-league building for a major-league franchise in the sport that best represents their heritage and their pugnacity. Now all they have to do is pay for it.
Stick-Handling Ability: Occasionally out-of-control, but a passionate bunch capable of pulling off an upset. May have traded away too much.
The Penalty Box: Game misconduct for fighting, plus two minutes for too many men on the ice.
Power Play: Two-man disadvantage.
